Leaf lantern
by Dylan Millwood
Summary: What happens when a certain Weapons Mistress, enounters a magical lanturn? Read to find out. Eventual NaruTen. adopted form On Soaring Wings. Rating changed for future chapters.
1. Chapter 1

It was supposed to be a regular C-ranked mission. Team Gai had been sent to guard a warehouse full of junk, from a group of ninja thieves. Tenten had reservations about the importance of the mission, but it was not her duty to question the judgment of the higher-ups. Gai, and Neji were defending the outside, while Lee, and Tenten dealt with any that made it inside. Simple enough right?

Over a dozen enemy ninja had made it inside. Tenten kept them at bay with barrage after barrage of thrown weapons, while Lee rushed around the interior at nigh-inhuman speeds, taking out the intruders with bone-crushing taijutsu. Just when it seemed that all the ninja had been subdued, they all pulled out and tossed several explosive tags all over the building before disappearing in puffs of smoke.

Lee knew that they only had split-seconds to get out of the building. Furthermore he knew that even with his strength, and speed, he couldn't get both himself, and Tenten out in time. Spotting a nearby desk that did not have any tags placed near it he quickly grabbed Tenten and rushed under the piece of furniture just nanoseconds before the tags went off.

_(Meanwhile outside the warehouse)_

_**BOOM!!**_

The force of the explosion knocked Neji, and Gai off their feet. Seconds later the majority of the warehouse collapsed. As the two team members who were lucky enough to be outside looked at the wreckage. They both had the same thing to say.

"LEE!! TENTEN!!"

_(Meanwhile back inside)_

"Ugh" Tenten groaned as she emerged from the remains of the desk. She was dirty, and scratched up, and carrying an unconscious Lee. It was clear from looking at him that Lee had taken the worst of the explosion, and collapse. Tenten tried to walk out, but after two steps she fell to her knees gasping for breath. When she looked at the ground she couldn't believe what she saw.

She saw a green lantern, that was illuminating the wreckage with a green flame. Tenten could do nothing but stare wide-eyed and in awe of the sight. Just when she thought it couldn't get any weirder. A booming voice rang out.

_**"Greetings mortal woman!"**_ The voice rang out.

"Me?" Tenten managed to squeak out.

_**"Of course you, do you see any others that match my previous greeting. Anyway consider yourself lucky, for I flame for the third time for you, and you alone."**_

"I don't understand, what do you mean?" Tenten asked.

_**"I have flamed twice before in the past. The first in rage to bring death. The second in remorse to bring life, and now in my desire to live again I flame a third time to bring POWER!!"**_

"And you want to give that to me?" Tenten asked in a combination of curiosity, and apprehension.

_**"I have been around in one form or another on this world for centuries. I have been held in the hands of many, some good, some evil. I have brought good luck, and fortune to the good hearted, while to the evil though they might achieve great conquest in the end I brought about their destruction." **_The voice explained.

"Wow." Was all Tenten could say.

_**"And now I have a promise to make. I promise power over the dark evils of this world will be yours as long as you have faith in yourself. To lose your faith will result in the loss of your power, for willpower is the true flame of the lantern. To be able to manifest the power you must carve away part of me to make a ring. The ring will in turn need to be touched to me at least once every twenty-four Earth hours. I have told you all you need to know for now. Now I leave you to tend to your teammates. Farewell for now Tenten." **_With that the flame died down.

"Lee, Tenten! Are you alright!?" Gai shouted as he managed to break his way through the rubble at that moment.

--

_(Later that night)_

Tenten had used a kunai to carve off a small piece of the Lantern, and was just finishing carving in into a ring-like shape that was in her size. It was in a simple, kinda crude design, but Tenten figured she could try to do some more detailed work on it later. When she slipped it on her finger it crackled, and glowed with a green energy for a few seconds before dying down. As Tenten lay on her futon to get some sleep, she couldn't help but think one thing.

_"This Lantern, and ring is gonna cause me a lot of trouble."_


	2. Chapter 2

It had been almost three months since Tenten had crafted the ring, and she had made a good deal of progress, training with it in her spare time. The lantern was teaching her all the basics of her newfound power, and how to use it. When she was'nt using the ring or lantern she kept them stored in a scroll she constantly kept near her person. She wasn't ready for anyone to know about the lantern yet. As a result she reluctantly did'nt use it at all during the Chunin exam.

The first thing she found she could use the ring to do was fly. It was an experience she enjoyed very much. She also found she could generate blasts of green energy, powerful enough to shatter large rocks. Finally she found she could focus the energy to create solid objects of almost any shape, and size. Tenten also found that none of the rings powers could effect wood, and plants.

However Tenten was soon becoming restless. It was becoming hard to train her newfound powers on just rocks alone. She wished she had someone to spar with, but she did'nt know if she could trust anyone with the secret. Sighing, she sat on a log, and created two sumo wrestlers to fight each other for her amusement.

__

(Nearby)

Naruto Uzamaki was taking a walk in the forest when he heard, the sumo wrestler's grunting. He stepped into the clearing emerging behind Tenten, and the sumo wrestlers. "Hey Tenten what's going on?!" He yelled upon seeing the sight. Tenten was so surprised, that she lost all focus and the sumo wrestlers dissipated.

"Oh hey Naruto... What's going on? Uh been standing there long?" She asked.

"Long enough to see those funky green fatsos. What was that all about?" The orange-clad genin inquired.

Tenten was about to lie, but she then for some reason figured that Naruto while always appearing somewhat dense in the past, had always seemed trustworthy. She could not recall a single incident where he spread any form of gossip, or told anybody a secret. (AN: Maybe that was because he had nobody to tell secrets to.) She decided to tell Naruto the whole story.

"Naruto sit down." She said patting the spot on the log next to her. "I'll explain what you saw, but you have to keep it a secret."

Naruto was elated. "Okay Tenten I promise I won't tell anyone dattebuyo!" He said as he sent down.

"Over the course of the next several minutes Tenten explained to Naruto everything that had happened. The mission, the strange lantern that spoke, and the powers that the ring had given her. For once in his life, Naruto sat quietly and took it all in. It's not every day you find that one of your comrades has possession of a ring that befalls great power on those who bear it. To his credit he took it pretty well.

"WOW TENTEN THAT'S SO FREAKIN COOL DATTEBUYO!!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Thank you Naruto." Tenten said nervously. Then Naruto got an idea.

"Hey how about we train together? If we help each other we can be unstoppable dattebuyo!" Naruto suggested in a passionate manner. Tenten thought about it for a minute before closing her eyes and slowly responding.

--

__

(6 days later)

Tenten flew through the forest taking maneuvering constantly to avoid the trees. Nearly three dozen Narutos were following her in hot pursuit. She quickly created, and threw a giant green boomerang at the group. Some of the Narutos leaped out of the way, but a good number of them were hit by the projectile, and puffed into smoke. The remaining Narutos began throwing several kunai at Tenten, but she was able to create a bubble of energy that blocked them all.

A hundred more kage bushin Narutos leaped onto the scene, and charged at Tenten. Thinking quickly she created a giant crescent moon blade on a long chain. She began to expertly swing it around, slicing every kage bushin that got within range. She then saw two Narutos forming a ball of swirling chakra in one's hand. Tenten knew what was coming and was prepared.

"RASENGEN!!" The real Naruto shouted as he charged at Tenten, and thrust his sphere-containing palm at her chest. However to his surprise he found it blocked by a suddenly-created green shield. Naruto looked up, and saw Tenten give a brief smirk, before a hand covered by a green boxing glove nailed him right in the gut, sending him flying into a tree. Tenten quickly flew over to him. "Naruto, are you alright?" She asked.

"Oh yeah I'm okay!" Naruto said springing back up. "That was a great spar Tenten. You're getting better each, and every time. That means I have to train to get better so I can keep up dattebuyo!"

"Well, same time tomorrow?" She asked.

"Sorry, I can't Oba-chan's giving my team a new mission tomorrow." Naruto answered.

"Oh well, see ya when you get back." Tenten said.

"Yeah see ya." Said Naruto.

__

(Three days later.)

Tenten awoke to a loud banging on her door, followed by the sound of Naruto yelling for her. Groggily she arose quickly slipping a white bathrobe, over her pink nightgown, (She preferred to keep a tough-girl image around her fellow shinobi.) She opened the door and was surprised to find not only Naruto, but Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba there as well.

"Tenten, Sasuke ran away from the village!" Naruto shouted distressed.

Needless to say, that cleared the morning fog in her head.


	3. Chapter 3

On top of the statue of the Shodai Hokage, Tenten and Naruto stared down at Sasuke standing atop the head of Uchiha Madara at the Valley of the End. Sasuke was rambling on about his need to kill his brother Itachi, and how the village was holding him back from getting stronger to do so. No longer hiding her powers, Tenten was hovering several feet above the ground. As Naruto, and Sasuke continued their argument, Tenten couldn't help but reminisce on this how this mission had gone.

_(Flashback.)_

_Tenten, Naruto, Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, and Neji had all just set out on their mission to bring back Sasuke. As they leapt through the trees Tenten couldn't help but ask a few questions._

_"Shikamaru are you sure that the six of us will be enough for this mission?"_

_"We have no choice Tenten." Shikamaru answered. "All the other Chunnin, and Jonin are stuck on other buissness. Shino is out on a mission with his father, Hinata lacks the nessessary confidence for a mission of this caliber, Lee is physically in no condition to be on any mission right now, and Sakura and Ino's feelings for Sasuke would only cause them to get in the way."_

_"Yeah." Kiba added. "Hell we weren't even going to talk to you Tenten, but Naruto-baka insisted we get you on our team."_

_'Did he now?' Tenten thought. 'Thank you Naruto.' Shaking her head she remained silent for the moment listening to Naruto, and Kiba's shouting match over who was the bigger baka._

_(A little later.)_

_The team had just been trapped under a huge dome of earth by the fat sound ninja. A few minutes later the team could feel their chakra reserves being drained away. This didn't worry Tenten much since she found that the ring had somehow given her a substancial boost to her chakra reserve that was at tailed beast-level when she wore it, but she was worried about her teammates. She knew deep down what she had to do. The time for secrets was over. Raising her hand at the wall she began firing blast, after blast of green energy. Choji, Kiba, and Neji had shocked looks on their faces, Shikamaru merely looked on with interest. The wall had taken some damage but was still standing, and began repairing itself._

_"Damn... That didn't work." Tenten said as she looked back to her teammates, she sheepishly said. "I guess I have some explaining to do."_

_Over the course of the next two minutes Tenten told everyone inside the dome the "cliff-notes" version of what had led to her newfound abilities._

_(Later)_

_The group had managed to get out of the dome, and Choji had stayed behind to fight the fat ninja. The group had now encountered the sound ninja with six arms. He attempted to catch them with a web, but Tenten was able to block it with an impromptu force field. Neji agreed to stay behind and fight him to buy the group some more time._

_(Even later)_

_The team had managed to briefly capture Sasuke's casket for a minute before being intercepted by another, more powerfull Sound ninja. Kiba got seperated from the group, and Shikamaru stayed behind to fight the girl Sound ninja. Naruto, and Tenten fought the new Oto-nin, but even with TenTen's powers, the ninja was far more skilled them they were. It was only with the timely intervention of Rock Lee that Naruto and Tenten were able to catch up to a retreating Sasuke._

_(End flashback)_

Naruto ran at Sasuke and attempted to throw a punch at him, but with his newly aquired three-tomoed Sharingan, Sasuke was able to easily counter the attack with a powerfull uppercut that sent Naruto over two dozen feet into the air, and crashing into the river below. Creating a bow, Tenten began to fire several arrows at Sasuke, but Sasuke managed to evade every one she fired. Tenten responded by creating a couple of archers to assist her. Sasuke's response to this in turn was to launch several fireballs at Tenten, the effort it took to dodge them caused her concentration to break, and her constructs dissipated.

At this point Naruto, and over a dozen Kage Bushins ran back up the valley wall, and ran at Sasuke, he then leapt in the air and let loose a stream of fire that took out all but five of the bushins. Three of them came at Sasuke from three different angles. "Na-Ru-To!" They yelled as they delivered a simultanious kick that sent Sasuke upward. The remaining bushin the hurled the real Naruto up above Sasuke he then shouted "Uzumaki Rendan!" As he came to deliver the final downward kick however, Sasuke grabbed his ankle, spun him around and yelled "Hayabusa Otoshi." as he then performed a belly-to-back pile driver sending Naruto crashing head first into a cliff...

Except it wasn't a cliff, it was a pile of twenty green mattresses created by Tenten. Sasuke quickly leapt up and grabbed onto her, but Tenten simply began to fly around wildly in an attempt to dislodge him.

"I don't know how you got this power." Sasuke said to her. "But It won't make any difference!"

"Says you!" Tenten said as she began to spin rapidly. This action caused Sasuke to lose his grip, and get thrown away. He hit the ground rolling, and came to a stop after about twenty feet. Tenten then fired a blast of energy from her ring, but Sasuke was quick to roll out of the way. A black flame-like pattern began to spread over the left side of Sasuke's body as he activated his cursed seal. He then leapt at Tenten faster then she could react, and delivered a punch that knocked her out of the air and sent her falling towards the hard earth below. Only to be caught in mid-air on a ladder made of Naruto shadow clones. The "ladder" then moved like some kind of freaky-looking serpent to set her down on the side of the valley. As the clones dissipated, the real Naruto burst out from under the spot of the river Sasuke was standing on and delivered an uppercut that sent him reeling. Sasuke countered with a spinning kick that sent Naruto spinning over ten feet.

"I'll kill you Naruto, and obtain the power I need for my ambition!" He raved.

"Not on my watch!" Tenten yelled as she created several large boulders, and one by one had them fall on Sasuke. Sasuke ran, leapt, and veered, and dodged as best he could to avoid them. The Uchiha was getting frustrated. He knew if he was going to win this fight, he would have to somehow take Tenten out of the picture. "I'll show you one a Jutsu I've been practicing in my spare time." Sasuke coldly said with a sneer then began spiting out fireballs which quickly took the shape of three-foot-long crescent blades. Tenten created a force field to block the blades, but one blade sliced a large branch off a tree above Tenten. The branch fell through the force field and hit her across the back.

Sasuke saw this, and it quickly dawned on him that wood was her weakness. Quickly forming a plan he took off into the nearby woods, and beckoned Tenten to give chase, which she did.

Naruto noticed this too and knew what Sasuke was planning. An idea hit him. He knew Sasuke's weakness.

"Tajuu kage bushin no jitsu!"

At least nine thousand clones of him poofed into existence, the original looked at them all.

"You guys know what to do! Let's move!"

All the Narutos scattered into the woods.

Tenten, meanwhile, was having a hard time with Sasuke. He kept ducking behind trees every time she tried to blast him.

_Nice move Tenten, fallow Sasuke into the forest when you KNOW the ring and lantern don't effect wood. That was a wonderful idea!_ she though bitterly to herself.

"Hey look everybody! Its Itachi's hateful little dancing monkey!" Naruto's voice shouted somewhere to Tenten's left.

That struck a nerve with Sasuke. He launched a stream of flames at were Naruto's voice had come from. The trees all turned to ash and Tenten's eyes widened in understanding and she flew up above the tree tops to wait for her chance to strike.

Every time Sasuke burnt the forest, the "Itachi's dancing monkey" comment came from somewhere else. Soon the traitor's cover was gone and he finally looked around to see he'd turned all the trees to ashes.

"OH SHIT! HOW COULD I FALL FOR THAT DOPE'S TRICK SO EASY?" Sasuke yelled.

"That's easy...your a broken watch. Time never moves forward with you. You're a dancing monkey that preforms for anyone who plays the tune of hate and revenge." Tenten said. floating to the ground while forming a Gamabunta-sized, heavy mallet with the ring's power and began hitting Sasuke on the head.

Repeatedly.

Naruto laughed as he came out, all his clones had been destroyed but they knew what they had been doing and the risk that came with the plan. He found it funny that the defecting ninja was getting clobbered like that...so did the fox.

"You lousey tramp!" Sasuke shouted and the curse began to cover his whole body. Sasuke's skin turned dark-tan brown and his hair grew much longer without losing its style and turned mitalic blue. His nails became the claws of a half-demon, he grew hand-shaped wings from his back, and a dark, star-shaped mark appeared on the bridge of his nose. The red of His sharingain eyes glared out of the black background of his curse seal-blackened fibrous tunic. Sasuke burst from the ground and gave the two leaf ninjas a good look at him.

Seeing what Sasuke had become. Naruto suddenly snickered and then burst out laughing. As he was laughing, red chakra began to surround Naruto. Blood-red energy surrounded Naruto and took the form of a one-tailed fox's outline. To Sasuke and Tenten's surprise, his already-shaggy blond hair was standing even more spikier than normal, his eyes were now red, with slit pupils. His whisker marks were thicker and were now more refined, making them look like abysmal scars, his teeth were replaced with razor sharp fangs, his hands and fingernails were replaced by deadly razor sharp claws...he'd become half-demon.

**"So...all the curse mark did was bring your Tengu blood to the surface? Heh. I'm not surprised in the least."** Kurama chuckled.

"How do you know about THAT? Its my clan's most closely guarded secrete!" Sasuke shouted, going wide eyed.

**"I know more than that. Like how your clan was the reasson for the nine-tailed fox's attack, and it's pretty long so I'll sum it up. Madara Uchiha, the founder of the Uchiha clan, used his Mangekyou Sharingan on the nine-tails to attack the leaf village. The reason Madara is still alive after being a century or so years old is because his grandfather was Sojobo, the tengu king. Not only that but the Uchiha clan is sort of a branch of Senju. They're...cousins...I suppose you could say. **

**It dates back to the Rikudō Sennin, a legendary Ninja whose actions in the past influenced several events in the present. Possessing the Rinnegan, a unique eye technique characterized by a ripple-like pattern around the pupil that enables the user to use all six forms of Chakra, the Sage was a priest who used what he learned of Chakra to end the bloodshed of his time. From there, he fashioned the basic rules and Jutsu which are currently used by the Hidden Villages. When he later confronts the Ten-Tailed Beast, the Sage became the first Jinchuriki when he sealed the creature inside himself. However, knowing the seal would break upon his death, the Sage used the last of his strength to separate the Ten-Tailed Beast's chakra into the Tailed Beasts while sealing the monster's body into the moon. Near death, the Sage brought his two sons before him and asked them what he thought would bring about peace, the answer that he deemed correct would decide his successor. ****When it came time for the Sage to choose a successor, he questioned the two on what course of action they would follow to bring order to the world. The Sage grew to favor the ideals of his younger son over those of his older son****. Therefore, on his deathbed it was the younger of the two brothers that the Sage chose to name as his successor**

**What many people don't know is that the elder brother fell in love ****and**** ended up wedding a woman who was actually a Tengu disguised in the form of a human, the demon blood caused the Rinnegan to mutate into a new form, the Sharingan." **Kurama said flatly.

"Then I can't let eather of you live! My clan's good name depends on that staying hidden!" Sasuke shouted and rushed Naruto, knocking him into the valley. Tenten flew after them and formed a green pair of thongs and grabbed Sasuke by the neck and tossed the half-Tengu into the wall of the valley and caught Naruto before he hit the ground.

"Thanks, Kamaitchi-sama." the fox-ninja said to her as his features morphed back to normal. Tenten blushed, while it wasn't her real last name, the title "kamaitachi" is the mark of a true weapons-master. And calling her "Lady Kamaitachi"... Tenten had never been complimented like that before.

Sasuke got up, snarling. He formed sevral handseals and directed the curse mark's power into his hand.

"Chidori!" Sasuke roared as the curse's influence turned the lightning black, Naruto snarled and channeled the fox's chakra into his palm as he formed a vermilion Rassangan and lunged at Sasuke.

The clash of the jutsu formed a huge black ball of chakra and Tenten flew up in the air to avoid getting caught in it.

As Sasuke aimed for Naruto's heart, his former friend smirked, just what he was grinning about became clear as a huge green piano fell on top of Sasuke and the Rassangan slammed into his head and sent him flying back and crashing into the valley's wall.

"Is he...?" Tenten asked as she landed, Naruto shook his head**.**

"I only used one percent of that power I've got, he's just stunned, appreciate the save there Tenten. I guess I'll have to explain that power of mine with the red chakra."

"No need, let's just get this jerk and head back home." Tenten said as she formed a green coffin that was wrapped in chains around Sasuke. As she did so, she couldn't help but be curious, How had Naruto known all of that about the Uchiha clan, Senju clan, the Rikudō Sennin, the Rinnegan and the Sharingan. It made him sound as though he were at least eons old. Did it have something to do with that red chakra? She'd need to look into this. Good thing she had a naturally inquisitive nature and didn't like to be kept out of the loop, and therefore loved to investigate as one of her hobbies...it was also a lot of fun.

Heading back to Konoha with the restrained Sasuke, Naruto and Tenten needed something to occupy their time, so the two asked Tenten's ring of it's history.

**"So you wish to know what I am and my origins?" The entity that powered the ring asked.**

"Yes." Tenten said and the ring complied to her request.

**"Three and a half billion years ago in a separate dimension from this one, a humanoid race from the world known Maltus sought to bring order to the stars. An offshoot of the race later took on the self-proclaimed title of "the Guardians of the Universe". As their first act, they sought to remove magic from the universe since they didn't understand it and therefore viewed it as a threat, and laid siege to the arcane forces of the cosmos. The war was costly on both sides. The last to fall was the powerful Empire of Tears, finally subdued by the Guardians on the tomb-world of Ysmault. After the wars, the stray mystical energies were gathered and bound in an orb called the Starheart, in other words, myself. I was hidden in the heart of a star and grew in power and eventually gained self-awareness as the Green Flame of Life. Though the Guardians were powerful, the force of magic was something that could not be contained forever. In preparation for this day, I willed a small portion of myself to travel through the universe to discover and fulfill my destiny. As I traveled through space, I gathered debris over the centuries until I resembled a meteor.**

**"Two thousand years ago, I had found my way to the Earth of that dimension and, after being made to fuse with the evil spirit of Yalan Gur, crashed as a meteor in China. A man named Chang eventually shaped the meteor into a lantern. Centuries later, an insane lampmaker named Billings reshaped it into a train lantern. Decades later, an alien named Zalaz stole the lantern I was contained in to raise his beloved M'la from the dead. Zalaz retreated into my consciousness and awakened M'la inside it. M'la became the Starheart's guardian. My consciousness, tainted with Yalan Gur's spirit and deranged from my persicution and imprisonment, later reawakened and destroyed M'la. A man named Alan Scott and a mystic called Torquemada managed to contain my energy and exsponge Yalan Gur from me. Once that was done, I served as Alan Scott's weapon since then.**

**"In the aftermath of a mass Edo Tensai-like event that came to be known as The Blackest Night, I began to subtley influence events in order to empower myself by taking control of several beings across the face of the Earth as well as driving certain Metahumans insane. Eventually, I caused Alan Scott to convulse in the arms of his son with green light pouring from his body as I fully possessed him. Furthermore, I was responsible for bringing Scott's daughter Jade in a meteor and sending her to Earth as well. This was all part of my attempt at getting ultimate power and I transformed my host Alan Scott; encasing him in a green covered armor whereupon I used him to tell the assembled heroes of the Earth in the dimension they were in that I intended to destroy the world. I quickly relocated to the moon where I formed an emerald fortress for itself with numerous constructs drawn from Alan's mind. I was quickly discovered but I began to use its influence to corrupt people with magical or mystical powers. This act provoked the attention of the Guardians of the Universe as well who dispatched one of their agents, Kyle Rayner, to eliminate Alan Scott though Rayner intended to simply disarm him.**

**"Once the ring and lantern were depowered and the Green Flame dwelt within Scott's body was removed, I fled. More recently, I resurfaced in another realm. This one. Given how the people of this reality possess control over their life-energies and manipulate the elements using their energy, the one they refer to as 'chakra', which would have made controling the Starheart easier since the way chakra worked allowed quantum defiant-actions to some degree, making it be much like the nature of magic, and the way a man by the name of Hashirama Senju could use the "Mokuton bloodline" to contain me by encasing me in wood, my only weakness, this place was the ideal place for me to be.**

**As for why I'm no longer insane, upon entering this dimension, I was almost instantly captured and taken to a place known as Mount Myoboku, the ones there picked up on my energy and used their ability to draw in energy from their surroundings to form Nature Chakra to bring me to Mount Myoboku and then proceeded to rehabilitate the me and then I went my own way, intent on redemption."**

Naruto frowned at the end of the tale, the Starheart wasn't evil, just deranged from being a prisoner for so long. It hadn't done anything wrong but was made to suffer anyway simply due to it's nature and the fact that it existed at all and had snapped under it all. It was too similar to being a Jinchuriki. Devils weren't born...they were made. Yet for the sins of the _creator_, the _creation_ was always the one punished.

"Guardians of the Universe, huh? Well they don't deserve that self-given title. If all they do is sit on their asses and bark orders, the title "The Watchers" is more fitting. All because _they _didn't understand something, they wanted to get rid of it, so the result of that is you came to exist. You're not evil, but you've got every right to be pissed."

Hearing that, the Starheart actually laughed. The blond wasn't a bad guy, it knew that already from when he went out of his way to help the one wielding it's power, but to hear the Guardians on Oa who had been such vindictive bastards get chewed out like that...it delighted the sentient mystical energy.

Then it stopped to think. Naruto had always been alone. Well...one thing the Starheart would need to fix was that as a thank you to the blond. And Come to thinks of it...its current master was avalible herself.

In terms of limitations, there was little getting in the way of a possible relationship. There was no tight ass family of ass-wipes standing between him and the girl like there was with Stalker. There was no crazy bastard that rammed an arm through Naruto's chest and the girl actually had sex appeal, unlike Sakura...there wasn't an entire country between Naruto and the girl like there was with Temari...no other male getting in the way of advancement. So, no limitations.

Starheart had even noticed some parallels between Naruto and Tenten. Both had high aspirations for their future and were willing to work hard. Naruto wanted to become the Hokage and the best shinobi he can be. Tenten wanted to be the best Kunoichi she can be. The common factor could realistically have them working together on missions, training, or other things because of their similar dreams.

Tenten happened to look up to Tsunade, and Naruto happened to be close to that woman. That could also provide a useful angle to form a connection between the two.

Unlike that Stalker, Tenten wasn't the type to shy away. The development between the blond and the weapon girl would likely be a hell of a lot more interesting too. And it wouldn't be able to take place after some type of cliche that happened in fanfictions that people felt they could get away with doing half-assed since half the work was already done for them because one person already liked the other in cannon material.

Of course, it wouldn't be as tough as it seemed to have them become friends frist. Tenten already respected Naruto for his victory over Neji and for his bond with Tsunade...the training the two had gone through to master Starheart's power had also helped some in that reguard.

Half way to Konoha, Naruto thought of something. "Hey Tenten...I'm wondering: What made you want to become a Kunoichi? If you don't mind my asking, that is."

Tenten sighed and felt that was a harmless question. "My main goal is to become as great as Tsunade-sama and show that the whole male-supiority thing is pointless and a person's skill is determained by ability and training rather than something like gender."

Naruto, for his part, simply stared at the weapon mistress for a full minute with a confused face. He looked almost as if Tenten's words just...didn't...compute.

Then he suddenly burst out laughing "You...you...ahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha...ACTUALLY BUY THAT LOAD OF CRAP! Holly hell, Tenten...! That...hahahaha...that's pathetic! YOU of all people! The insane, one-sided judgement of a chuvinistic bastard that was too in love with himself to see anything about the world around him if it didn't involve his own reflection causing him to decide that garbage of men are stronger than women is the truth when he was the only one who thought so...and YOU buy that? I'm sorry...I'm sorry...its just...your goal is based off something that was never true! Bahahahahahaha!"

Whatever Tenten had expected, him labeling her an idiot for for wanting to prove kunoichi were as strong as any male shinobi because he already felt the men-are-stronger-than-women thing being nothing but a pack of lies wasn't it. She felt her respect for the orange-clad blond rise to all new proportions.

Hearing what Naruto thought of her goal, that he felt she was waisting her time because the chauvinistic view of male supiority was already a lie, it made her feel happy he saw a person for their ability like that. It brought back memories of when she had first dreamed of becoming a strong kunoichi like her heroine: Tsunade, and thanks to Gai's guidance she initially began her path toward becoming a legendary medical-nin. However during her training trying to heal a fish with the Shōsen jutsu, she failed. So she had attempted to sign a contract to summon a creature like Tsunade's famed slugs, but without success because of a quarrel with Ningame, Gai's turtle summon. After many failures, Gai had noted that she had a talent for jikūkan ninjutsu and began helping her honing her unique fighting style. After that, Tenten had realised that she was a weapons specialist and vowed that instead of becoming just like Tsunade, she would still become a legendary kunoichi in her own right by her own merits.

Tenten looked up and, seeing Konoha in sight, dispelled the coffen around Sasuke and landed before sealing away the ring in the scroll she kept it and the lantern in, she still didn't want the village as a whole to know about her abilities granted by the Starheart. At least not just yet.

As they approached the village gates on foot, the two saw Sakura, some villagers and a few shinobi at the gates. Naruto had taken to carrying Sasuke on his back and he smiling of course, why wouldn't he? They'd finished their mission and brought back the traitor. Naruto started walking faster and was waiting for Sakura to thank him, but what happened next was what he was afraid of.

"What have you done to Sasuke-kun?" yelled none other that Sakura. "You almost killed Sasuke-kun you monster! I can't believe you!"

"Ano, Sakura-chan…I kept my promise." Naruto tried to say, but she just punched the blond in the face and grabbed the traitor in her arms, looking down at him with a worry and glaring daggers at the Uzumaki.

"Promise? This is how you keep your promises?" she yelled. Sakura got up and started beating Naruto.

"You monster! Demon! Look at what you did!" she yelled kicking him, at the same time ignoring Naruto's injuries.

"But…Sakura-chan…" Naruto tried to talk to her with tears in his eyes.

"Don't you call me 'Sakura-chan' you monster!" she yelled again and continued hitting him.

Naruto snarled as his eyes turned blood red and he grabbed Sakura's wrist, he glared at her murderously as he stood up and shoved her away.

"Don't you have any heart at all? I DID WANT YOU ASKED ME TO, I BROUGHT HIM BACK FOR YOU!"

"Of COURSE I have a heart...and my heart belongs to Sasuke-kun!" Sakura picked herself out of the dirt and shook her head, "Unlike you, Naruto, his feelings for me are true."

"How can you be so sure? Does he ever say "I love you"? Does he walk beside you and listen to your opinions? Does he comfort you when your sad? DID HE CHOOSE TO STAY WITH YOU INSTEAD OF RUNNING TO OROCHIMARU?" Naruto yelled out the last part, his voice cracking under the words.

"I want you out of my life!" Sakura snapped as she took a step forward. "I figured you would understand the most at how people deserve happiness. But now I understand just how you really are. A monster like you could never understand matters of the human heart. Leave!"

Naruto stood there with his mouth hung open. His eyes flashing red and blue violently as pain and anger fought for control of his heart. Naruto never thought it was possible to feel two extreme emotions at once… until now.

Tenten scowled at Sakura, she was the very embodiment of everything the weapon-using girl saught to disporve. And now she had the gall to treat Naruto this way? All he'd done was fight to keep that damn promise she'd forced him to make before she'd let any of the retrivial team leave to get her drool toy back. How was it Naruto's fault Sasuke was determaned to kill him just to get to Orochimaru? Sniviling little whore...

There was just no way the brunette was going to stand for this.

"Alright! That is IT Haruno! Shut up...just shut up you worthless dead-weight! You wanted Naruto to get Sasuke back, Naruto got Sasuke back. You're lucky that this was a retrieval mission, because we found out the bit of information you left out: Sasuke went off to join Orochimaru WILLINGLY! If it was ANBU or hunter-nin that were sent after Sasuke and found that out, they'd have _killed _Sasuke instead, in fact, the mission parameters allowed Naruto to kill Sasuke once we learned the truth about him leaving Konoha! But Naruto just knocked him out and brought him back-just like he promised you he would! You don't have the right to treat Naruto this way, you don't _GET _the right to treat Naruto this way, and you never _HAVE _the right to treat Naruto this way! So shut it because he was well within his rights to choose to blow off the guy's head and dump the corpse at your feet on this mission!"

Sakura stared at Tenten as if she had grown a second head, "What's WRONG with you? Ho...never mind, I'll beat the natural order into you: That Sasuke is supposed to be adored while Naruto is supposed to be hated!" the harpy snapped.

"Sakura." Called Naruto, catching the attention of the pink-haired girl.

"You shouldn't even try. You don't stand a chance against Tenten." Said the boy, not even facing the girl. He didn't even care at all for Sakura's wellbeing any longer.

Sakura, however ignored the advice of her teammate. As she did, Naruto couldn't help but shake his head though he wouldn't say anything else about it. If she wanted a trip to the hospital or (even better, in his mind) mourge, who was he to stand in her way? Even without needing to use Starheart's powers, Naruto felt this was like throwing a lamb into the den of a pack of starved, rabid wolves after chopping the lamb's legs off so it couldn't run, it was such a mismatch between the two females.

"You know you should have listened to Naruto-kun. After all, someone like you doesn't stand a chance against me." Even though she said this Tenten really did want the girl to fight. After all the girl really needed to get the beating she had coming to her for all she'd done to Naruto-kun...wait...since when did she add the '-kun' suffix to his name? Sure they had trained together to help her learn to use Starheart's powers and she saw him as a good friend, but there was nothing romantic in how they knew one another!

"Naruto, care to give the starting signal?" Tenten asked.

Naruto nodded and walked off to the side between the kunoichi and the fangirl and raised his arm in the air.

"Begin!" he shouted, bringing his hand down in a cutting motion.

Almost immediately Sakura rushed forward and threw a right hook determined to end it quickly. Tenten merely sighed before sidestepping the punch then in a single motion she locked her arm around Sakura's, grabbed her hair, turned a full three-hundred-and-sixty degrees and threw the girl back to where she started.

"If that's the best you can do I won't even have to get serious. This is your last chance, give up. Someone like you who's merely playing ninja just to slobber over someone's ass has no business here in Konoha." Said Tenten, her voice taking on a harsh tone. Seriously...she wasn't even going to need the Starheart ring and lantern if this was the floozy's best.

Sakura grit her teeth at that and climbed to her feet, "If I was playing ninja, I wouldn't have this hitae-tae." she snapped.

Almost as soon as she was on her feet, the pink haired girl launched a kunai at her opponent before charging. As she ran, Sakura created two bunshins and all three proceeded to run in a crossing pattern. Tenten seeing this, simply sighed once again before charging forward herself before jumping and spun in a roundhouse, passing right through the first two Sakuras before nailing the third in the head with a kick...once again launching the pink haired gennin away from her. Sakura landed sprawled out on her side and though she tried to pick herself up she couldn't.

"If you actually thought that academy tactics would help you, you're even more pathetic than I thought. Obviously the only reason that a fangirl like you even has a hitae-tae is because the academy exam is too easy.

Hell all you had to do was pass a written exam and do a basic textbook technique. If the academy test was any harder, a stupid fangirl like you wouldn't even have graduated. On top of that the sensei's test are also too easy as anyone with even the slightest bit of common sense could pass them." Stated Tenten her harsh tone not faltering in the slightest, even as she leapt up and slammed down onto Sakura's knees, shattering the bone.

"Since then all you've done is hide behind your teammates. On any of your missions whenever you've come across trouble you played the damsel in distress so that your teammates had to bail you out." Said Tenten smirking as she saw Sakura's eyes widen. Tenten grabbed Sakura and roughly yanked her to her feet just to punch her in the stomach with the force of a sledge hammer. As Sakura buckled doubled over as the wind was knocked out of her, Tenten headbutted her in the face and Sakura heard and felt the bones in her nose give off a sickening crunch, spurts of blood flowing down her face from it in a pair of twin rivers.

"Yeah that's right, Naruto-kun's told me all about it. He's told me about how all you seem to do is fawn over that pathetic Uchiha like you're nothing but a street whore or a strip club hooker while he completely ignores your existence. All you do is follow behind your emo teammate, who doesn't even like you, like a sick puppy instead of spending your time training and trying to better yourself."

Tenten elbowed Sakura in the throat and Sakura gasped as she stumbled back, clutching her throat as she attempted to regain her ability to breath properly, only for Tenten's knee to smash into the other girl's jaw, breaking it and sending the pink-haired member of Squad Seven flying backwards and tumbling like a sack of abused produce as she hit the ground.

Sakura attempted to crawl away, only for a hand to grab onto one of her ankles and Tenten swung her around in a circle before throwing her and Sakura slammed into a building. Sakura looked up fearfully with blood, saliva, and tears running down her face as Tenten advanced on her, her brown eyes narrowed in unforgiving contempt.

"Such a spineless weakling...You fangirls are a menace. A plague to all serious kunoichi. Look at you... a pathetic excuse for a shinobi. Fangirls really are a despicable breed, shunning all else, even common sense, just so their crush with look at them. We don't need pathetic creatures like you polluting our ranks here in Konoha. Just the sight of you disgusts me. Maybe if you stopped thinking with your pussy and actually used the slab of mass inside that big ass forehead of yours you call a brain you'd have already figured this out.

Hell...you even had the gall to see to it Tsunade-sama was kept unaware of that Ten no Juin hicky Orochimaru slapped on the guy. You valued slobbering over the Uchiha's ass more than the well-being of your own village and all the shinobi lands in general seeing as ALL of them would have had to suffer if that snake got his claws on the Sharingan, so slink back to Oto because you're OBVIOUSLY one of that hebi-teme's BEST AGENTS!"

Sakura went wide eyed at that and her open palm rushed at the side of Tenten's face, but as soon as it landed, there was a sickening cracking sound and Sakura cradled her arm as it went limp at her side.

Tenten couldn't suppress a disgusted scowl at the display as she watched the pathetic creature attempt to scream in agony with her jaw broken.

"Shattered all the bones in your arm from your shoulder to your fingertips, eh? With how much you smack around Naruto-kun, I'd have thought you'd be physically stronger or at least semi-worthless in taijutsu. But I guess even divine intervention from kami-sama wouldn't be able to grant that to a slavishly devoted Uchiha-worshiping whore like you if you injure yourself like that when you hit me."

Sakura growled and threw a wild haymaker at Tenten. She sighed and slipped under it with a speed that dwarfed anything Sakura was remotely capable of. She reached out and grabbed the back of Sakura's head with both hands. Tenten drove her left knee into Sakura's stomach, pulled down on Sakura's head, and smashed her right knee into Sakura's eye. The eye swelled up like a grape fruit.

Sakura let out a gurgling scream and tried to pry Tenten's hands off her head. Tenten let go with her left hand, keeping a grip on the back of Sakura's neck with her right, and grabbed onto Sakura's flailing right wrist. Jumping into the air, Tenten kicked her right leg into Sakura's stomach and flung her left leg over Sakura's outstretched arm and across her neck. Both girls fell to the ground, Sakura's arm stretched out from her shoulder and her body pinned down by Tenten's legs. Tenten squeezed her knees together and arched her hips upright, hyper-extending Sakura's arm and the limb snapped like a match stick.

With her anger appeased, Tenten turned and walked away, feeling desecrated for even being in the same village as the pink-haired girl, much less come into contact with her, even if it was to smack the thing around.

Naruto was stunned. Not at the well-deserved brutality shown towards Sakura, but by the fact that Tenten had stood up for him. Someone stood up for him..._him_! the Jinchuriki of the Kyubbi! He pulled out a kunai and stabbed himself in the thigh and winced. Real pain...this wasn't some hallucination, genjutsu, or dream. Someone had honestly and truly stuck their neck out for him like that and defended him!

He put the blade away and looked at Tenten as if truly seeing her for the first time. Taking in every detail of her appearance.

Tenten had lightly tanned skin due to the amount of time she trained outdoors, much like his own. Her long, chocolate brown hair was done up in a practical style of two Chinese-style chignon buns, one on either side of her head with them parted by a space between them in the middle so that they resembled the ears of a panda or a cartoon mouse to keep it out her face when she was fighting, and her forehead protector was around her forehead with the spiral arrow symbol of the Leaf right in the center of her forehead and framed underneath a fringe she had of a few strands of hair being used like bangs. Her eyes were the same shade of brown as her hair. Her style of dress was also more traditional, consisting of a pink, sleeveless, Chinese-style blouse with ee strap-up buttons on front, while the blouse showed off her lean arms. She also wore a pair of Chinese-style, deep, dark, olive green pants.

The kunoichi in question walked up to Naruto and crossed her arms under her breasts as she looked at him expectantly. "Well?"

Naruto snapped out of his daze-like state at the sound of her voice "Huh? ho...sorry...thanks for doing that for me Tenten...first time anyone's ever stood up for me."

Tenten smiled slightly "You're welcome...but I didn't mean that. Shouldn't the village have a right to know the Uchiha clan's little secret? We have to fill out a mission report anyways."

Naruto's eyes sparked as he recalled everything and nodded then the two went to the Hokage tower to report everything about the mission while the injured members of the retrieval team were sent to the hospital.

A while later at the Hokag tower, Naruto and Tenten stood before the shinobi tribunal which was made up of only Tsunade, Jiraiya, the Shinobi clan heads, the three elders, and the ANBU Commander.

It was they who would decide a shinobi's fate when they broke the law and this was especially severe.

What was odd was the fact that Kurama stood before them in Naruto's initial hanyou-like form of his transformations without any chakra tails. The demon was grinning like a Chester Cat. To say the fox was looking forward to dragging the Uchiha Clan's name through the mud using their own linage was a brutal understatement. The fact that Sasuke was there and tied in a straight jacket with a bit in his mouth and had a chakra-sealing tag hanging from his forehead going between his eyes and that he was strung up and dangling off the ground like a piñata only further amused the Nine-Tails.

**"Confession time, eh Uchiha?"** The fox asked tauntingly before turning to the gathered ninja.

**"Pay attention because I'm only saying ****all ****this to all of you once...****As you all know, the Rikudō Sennin is a legendary Ninja whose actions in the past influenced several events in the present. Possessing the Rinnegan, a unique eye technique characterized by a ripple-like pattern around the pupil that enables the user to use all six forms of Chakra, the Sage was a priest who used what he learned of Chakra to end the bloodshed of his time. From there, he fashioned the basic rules and Jutsu which are currently used by the Hidden Villages. When he later confronts the Ten-Tailed Beast, the Sage became the first Jinchuriki when he sealed the creature inside himself. However, knowing the seal would break upon his death, the Sage used the last of his strength to separate the Ten-Tailed Beast's chakra into the Tailed Beasts while sealing the monster's body into the moon. Near death, the Sage brought his two sons before him and asked them what he thought would bring about peace, the answer that he deemed correct would decide his successor.**

******The elder of the two sons was born with the Sage's "eyes" and was gifted with powerful chakra and spiritual abilities. He felt POWER was the key to peace**

******The younger of the two sons ****was born with the "body" of the Sage, inheriting his father's strength of will and physical energy. Unlike his sibling, the younger brother felt COMPASSION was needed to bring peace.**

**When it came time for the Sage to choose a successor, he questioned the two on what course of action they would follow to bring order to the world, making it clear that their answers would determain his choice. The Sage grew to favour the ideals of his younger son over those of his older son, who believed that power alone was the true key to finding peace. Therefore, on his deathbed it was the younger of the two brothers that the Sage chose to name as his successor. **

**Naturally, this caused the elder to be filled with jealousy that the Sage picked the youngest of his two sons to succeed him. So bitter and hateful at having being denied what he felt was rightfully his to inherit simply because he was older ****and refusing to accept that it was his own ideas of peace having to be something that was forced through power and to make war with everyone and rule over all others with a iron fist that had caused him to be passed over, ****attacked his younger sibling...this family fude between the two brothers continued to the time of the Sage's descendants: Senjus and Uchihas.**

**What many people don't know is that the elder brother fell in love ****and**** ended up wedding a woman who was actually a Tengu in the disguise of a human form, the demon blood caused the Rinnegan to mutate into a new form, the Sharingan."**

"Ugh...The Uchiha ancestor sounds like Danzo!" Tsume said with utter distaste, not even caring that said elder was in the room with them, refusing to acknowledge the man's existence because he was that revolting a character.

Kurama nodded, feeling something off with the bandaged elder.

"You expect us to buy that story? Do you take us for fools, monster?" Humura, Koharu, and Danzo all snapped.

The fox shrugged Naruto's shoulders **"Depends. Do you mean EVERYONE on this council or just you three shrivled relics? Because if it's the later rather than the former, then yes, yes I do think you three are fools."**

The clan heads all laughed at that. Who knew the fox had a sense of humor?

**"Besides that...Sasuke more or less admitted being a hanyou during the fight to get him back at the valley where that butt-fucking, dickless, cock-sucking asshole Uchiha Madara fought with that jerk Senju Hashirama. Have the Yamanaka scan his mind and see for yourselves."**

The collective ninja in the room all raised eyebrows at that, Madara had that many insults thrown at him and all Tsunade's grandfather got was being called a jerk?

**"Don't get any ideas. I hate BOTH Hashirama and Madara...I just hate the Senju Clan less than I hate the Uchiha one is all."** the fox said as if picking up on their thoughs. **"I've said my piece, do with it what you will and scan the bastard Uchiha's memories, let that determine the honesty of all I've said. I bid you all farewell."**

With that, the fox shut Naruto's eyes and the blond's features returned to normal before Naruto opened his eyes and he looked around.

"So is this trial over?" he asked.

Danzo glanced at Homura and Koharu, seeing as Itachi still had them under threat, for them that might not do at all.

"So...what dose Sasuke have to say in his defense?" Danzo said, the three were secretly hoping things were going to end poorly for Sasuke. After all, if he was excicuted for treason, Itachi's threat was void. Sasuke had brought it upon himself and his older brother would have to accept it.

The bit was removed and Sasuke started on a rant that made the shinobi tribunal wonder how hard any blows to the head Sasuke had taken had been. Something about a migic train lantern, aliens, and other realities.

Naruto and Tenten felt their nerves rattle as Sasuke finished, Sasuke knew about the Starheart? Clearly, he'd woken up during the trip back and heard everything. No way was Naruto going to risk the Starheart falling into the wrong hands and he knew just the way to fix this. He spoke up as soon as Sasuke finished talking.

"Objection, who here on this Council has EVER known the Uchihas to take responsibility for their own failures or admit that the fact that their last name happened to be "Uchiha" didn't make them invincible whenever they lost to someone who actually worked hard to EARN their skills? Think about that before they decide something like this. There is such a thing as manipulating the shape of chakra. Besides...ninjas use chakra and to do all kinds of crazy things like walk on walls and ceilings without gravity sending them crashing to the ground and walking on water. And chakra CAN be different colors, take the curse mark's chakra for example: it was purple. And the kind I used against Neji in the Chunin Exam finals was RED. And I mean come on...Magic? For real? What's next as part of this story of Sasuke's? Tinkerbell flying up to him, pulling a rabbit out of a hat and beating him over the head with it? I'm asking you all to think about this: dose this story Sasuke is telling sound like it's true or more like pride-saving Uchiha bullshit?"

The clan heads all shared a collective glance with one another for only a second before sighing and announcing their decision in perfect unison, their tones a heavy drawl of exasperation as memories of having to work with members of the Copycat Clan struck them.

"Uchiha bullshit."

Sasuke looked livid. Pride-saving Uchiha bullshit? The Uchihas never taking responsibility for their own failures or admit that the fact that their last name didn't make them invincible whenever they lost to someone who actually worked hard to EARN their skills? Where was this all coming from? He was from the noblest bloodline in the cosmos and the Council was buying the word of the worthless orphan? As the bit was forced back into his mouth, Yamanaka Inoichi walked up and put a palm on his forehead and read the boy's mind.

As the man set about digging for the truth about Sasuke being half-tengu and everything else Kurama had said, Tsunade dismissed Jinchuriki and weapons misstress. Exiting the Hokage's office, Naruto turned to Tenten.

"Well...guess this is where we part ways for today Tenten." the blond said.

Tenten frowned at that, seeing as in Konoha, Sasuke being adored while Naruto was hated was seen as the 'natural order' of things for whatever had happened to cause Naruto to be held in such contempt, she didn't much like the idea of Naruto being left off on his own after news of this got out. Him helping expose that the Uchiha were half-demons and that their legacy was death and betral? Not going to end well. The village would use him as a scapegoat.

With that in mind, Tenten's hand zoomed out as if on its own accord and grabbed his hand and she lead Naruto through the industrial part of Konoha.

"Wha...? Tenten, what're you doing?" Naruto asked.

"Just follow me." she said, with an clear destination and reasoning behind it in her mind.

Tenten reached her house opened up the door and waked in, all without Naruto getting a good look at anything.

"I'm home!" Tenten yelled out to whoever else was in the house.

"Welcome home Tenten!" someone in another room called back, Naruto could hear something strange in the background, like something getting beat or something.

Naruto looked around the room seeing weights some weapons decorating the walls and in the corner a punching bag being kicked to death by a woman in a blue Chinese style top and black pants.

The woman stopped her merciless assault on the poor punching bag and turned to see her daughter. The woman's hair was tied in two buns like Tenten's. They two looked almost the same though Tenten was shorter and her hair was a much lighter shade of brown then her mother's.

Tenten's mother's eyes drifted from Tenten to the boy she was escorting through the house. A look of shock washed over her face when she saw him. Tenten's mother got a hold of herself and walked up to Naruto. "I must be crazy...my daughter brought a BOY home!" She said as she looked at the blond as if she were translating a foreign text.

Though Tenten's mother's look wasn't cold or mean, it was uncomfortable being looked at that way by someone who made that punching bag seem as if it was begging to be put out of its misery. Naruto figured the best course of action was keep out of trouble and stay well clear of that woman's high kick. He looked at the woman and was relieved to see a broad, welcoming smile on her face.

"Well…it's about time she brought a guy home! The fact that you don't rant about fate or youth is one hell of a plus! Why don't you stay for tonight? I made supper for us." Tenten's mother announced getting her towel and whipping her face. While her towel was covering her eyes as she whipped her face, she failed to notice her daughter cringe at the part about her bringing a guy home with her.

"Wha...well...thank you ma'am." Naruto said. Truth be told, it was the first time this had ever happened to him. He had utterly no idea what to do with being invited to stay over by someone's parents before. With his past, it was to be expected, he supposed.

"Really? Great I'm starved. What are we having?" Tenten said, noticing how uncomfortable and awkward Naruto was and felt getting her mom's attention off him was for the best right now.

"Whatever you bring home." Tenten's mother handed her some money and walked off to another part of the house.

Tenten growled quietly. "I thought you said you made supper!"

"I did. I poured some water and put plates on the table. Be sure to get something for this new boyfriend of yours!" Tenten's mother called back with a laugh.

"I think I'll go get some Vegetarian dishes for us for making me get the food!" Tenten yelled out walking out the front door.

"You do and I'll disown you…besides you hate vegetarian food as much as I do!" Tenten's mother parried her daughter's threat in a great display of figurative swordplay. Tenten huffed and went to get the food, then once she was ten feet from the house, she froze as what her mom had called the the blond sunk in. "My new _**WHAT**_?"

Naruto felt his face heat up at the woman's comment about him and her daughter being a couple along with hearing Tenten's shout.

Tenten's mom must have noticed how red he was, because she laughed good-naturally and clapped a hand onto his shoulder. "Easy there, I just like teasing my daughter. You think I'd pass up saying something like that in this situation? My name's Miu by the way."

The woman's words caused Naruto to visibly relax, as a prankster at heart, he should have guessed that she was just messing around. Still...his positive interactions with parents and their children was near non-existent, so he supposed that had reared its ugly head and kept him from realizing the woman was being playful.

"So...what's with the visit? I heard your mission was a success, but my daughter isn't the type to drag others to her place to celebrate a successful mission. Trust me...we've had a restraining order against Gai and Lee since she introduced her teammates to us, and Neji had my husband and I use him as a bullseye to get him to shut up about fate. So what's up?"

Naruto sighed and explained the situation that happened with the retrieval mission and Sakura, leading up to Tenten practically dragging him home with her so he'd have some support with all that had transpired with his teammates.

Miu looked livid as he finished. "So let me get this straight: all because the spoiled asshole thought he was entitled to whatever he wanted all because of his last name and the fact he could change the color of his eyes, he thinks a beeline, frontal assault would work on Itachi when he should have known better than anyone else alive that trying that sort of an attack on his elder brother was complete suicide, and Itachi beat him into a coma for it. And while he's trapped in this coma, you're out working yourself hard enough to where the only reason you even survived the effort you were putting into your training was that thing the Yondaime stuck inside your body. Once the bigot is healed up, he expects the gap between you and him NOT to shift since he was comatose while you were pushing yourself that hard, and even then, he never really trained and chose to use the Sharingan to play monkey-see-monkey-do to ride on the coattails of everyone else. So he challenged you to a fight and when he saw your technique was stronger than his, he throws a pussy fit and goes traitor...am I right thus far?"

Naruto nodded.

"Then when some tramp that treats everything is a kid's game just to be around Broody McDuck-Ass learns he's running away, she refuses to allow the ones sent to drag his ass back to head out after him until you were forced to swear an oath to bring him back, you had to fight through the hand-picked elites of that psycho Orochimaru, then the guy you were sent to get back tries killing you because your his best friend, and once you beat the asshole and drag him back, the whore blows a gasket and rips into you all because you were forced to slap the guy around a bit in order to keep that promise she forced you to make?"

Again, Naruto nodded "For what it's worth, Tenten was really pissed and beat the crap out of Sakura for it then brought me here after all that." he said.

Hearing that, Miu beamed, fully proud of her daughter for defending a comrade and being there to support them after they had to go through all that. Going through all that was bound to leave a hellish amount of psychological backlash...so it would help if they had someone be there for them to support them through that bad a turn of events like what the blond's two so-called "teammates" had recently put him through.

"I can see why my daughter wants you to avoid your place enough to invite you over for a while, seeing as there'd likely be a mob waiting for you at yours for exposing that Mimane-teme." Miu said.

Naruto stiffled a laugh, Mimane-teme...seeing as "Mimane" ment "to imitate what one has seen", it didn't take a genius to know the nickname was a jab at Sasuke for the sharingan. For some reason, Naruto found that funny. Compleatly unaware a certain kitsuine was laughing his head off inside his gut.

"Well...there's a good name for him. So how can I help around here?" Naruto asked.

Miu shook her head amusedly "You're a thorn in Orochimaru's side, let's call that payment enough. But if you want to help, I suppose you could help me out in the kitchen."

"Didn't you send Tenten to get something to eat already?"

Miu giggled "Yep. but she hates being sent on errends like that for nothing. I did it to mess with her, all in good fun."

At that moment, Tenten stormed into the house, red-faced and looking ready to bite. Apparently she had just figured that out herself "MOM!"

Miu just laughed as Naruto and now her daughter helped her make dinner.

After the three had eaten, Naruto sighed in content, wondering if this was what having a family was like. He had to confess he was enjoying the feeling. He sat on the couch next to Tenten and he looked up as Miu entered the living room, holding an envelope in her hand.

"I got a letter from your father today."

"Oh? What did it say? What did it say?" Tenten asked excitedly.

"Your dad won his fighting tournament in the Swamp country" Miu said as she handed her daughter the letter and envelope.

Tenten read the letter and laughed that at the end. There was an apology and the words "It wasn't my fault they snuck up on me" in smaller letters. Tenten looked in the envelope to see a picture of her dad in a regular white karate outfit and red bandanna. What made Tenten giggle was two good-looking women in skimpy outfit holding a trophy and a first place sash up to her father while giving him each a kiss on either cheek. Her father looked very uncomfortable and shy while his blush was clearly visible on his face.

"It looks like dad was enjoying himself, hm?" Tenten teased. Her mother's indignant snort made her smile. She knew if her mother was there to see that, those two women would get the beating of their lives and her father would get it twice as bad. Her mom could get a little bit jealous sometimes.

Tenten got up from the couch handing the letter and picture back to her mother and leaving up the stairs somewhere.

"Big dumb…womanizing jerk…" Miu said, looking at the picture again. She knew it wasn't his fault but still it irked her a little. Miu looked over at the blond, staring at her then the picture on the wall then at her again. Miu moved from the chair she was sitting on to the couch beside the boy and showed the picture to him. "Can you believe those hussies? I can't believe they would act like that."

Naruto looked at the picture to see there were indeed two scantily-clad women kissing a guy in a white karate outfit. Naruto's jaw dropped when he saw the background in the audience, a very familiar old guy with long white hair that was visibly drooling in the photo, at most likely the two women kissing the other guy.

_Ero-Sennin?_

"At least my husband had the decency to look ashamed unlike this other guy in the background. You can even see him drooling over those girls…strange people huh?"

Naruto decided the safest thing to do was to just nod mutely in agreement, best this woman not learn the "other guy in the background" was his teacher...he'd live longer.

Miu took the picture back and put it in the envelope. "Guess I'll call it a night. Early mornings come fast ya know." She walked out of the room to her room Naruto guessed.

Naruto heard someone down the stairs. Tenten walked into the room, looking much different then before. Her hair was tide in a ponytail and she had a simple grey t-shirt that looked like it seen better days.

"What? This is my favorite sleeping shirt." Tenten defended her attire. "Anyway I've got to get sleep. Have to get up early for meeting with my team tomorrow."

Naruto nodded, that figured with being on the same team as Gai and Lee...otherwise they'd pull a house call...and THAT would be all kinds of Hell. The two youth-obsessed weirdos paying someone a visit in their own home...scary.

Tenten smiled a bit as she tossed Naruto a short-sleeved shirt that was way too big for him "Night shirt of my dad's. You'll be staying here with no 'ifs', 'ands', or 'buts' after what happened...got it? I don't trust what would happen if you were forced to be by yourself with everything those twisted excuses of teammates put you through or the fact that you exposed an ugly truth about the Uchiha clan to a village full of Sharingan-worshiping idiots. There's a guest room upstairs, third door on the right." the girl said.

Naruto blushed at the thought of staying at a girl's house and nodded. As Tenten followed him up the stairs, he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, that Tenten seemed uncomfortable about something.

Stopping in front of the guest room, Naruto turned to her, "What's wrong, Tenten?"

"It's just...it's stupid really...never mind." she said quickly.

"Tenten..spill it." Naruto said "I can't help if I don't know what the problem is."

The girl sighed "I'm starting to worry about me being too much of a tomboy to like a guy." she muttered, embarrassed.

Naruto snorted "Tomboy? Hardly. You're just as feminine as Sakura or Ino, but the difference with you is simple: What defines you is the fact that you're a shinobi rather than a fangirl. You're the best kunoichi of our generation in this village, and they can't accept that, but they know it's impossible for them to reach your level, their trying to knock you down so you're on theirs instead. Rise up to match the competition's level or knock them down so they fall to yours, it's the same difference as far as they're concerned. You became a kunoichi for all the practical reasons and did it all because YOU CHOSE IT FOR YOURSELF. You didn't do it because of how addicted you were to slobbering over someone's ass. They see that as a threat since they can't understand that. If you let something like a petty label shatter your will to improve, then turn in your headband and ninja supplies then go slobber over Sasuke while holding a tea party like the rest of those things that think they're ninjas of Konoha because you're just as worthless as those fangirls. If I'm harsh in saying all this, I'm sorry, but that's simply fact. So what's it going to be: Shinobi or Fangirl?"

Tenten brightened at that. Figured Naruto would do something like that. He'd been smacked down enough to know how to bounce back even higher than he was before and he deeply admired hard work. It was blunt to say all that the way he had, but he did have a point and he did have way of diving headfirst into the realm of the depressing to try brightening someone's day or helping someone when they needed it even if he had to drag them out of the gutter with them kicking and screaming for him to leave them alone and mind his own business.

And he was right...compaired to everything about her own choice to focuse on training rather than drooling over guys, she felt silly now that she thought about it. Tenten smiled and planted a quick peck on Naruto's middle whisker on his right cheek in thanks and pulled away.

"Thanks Naruto, I needed to hear that and you're absolutly right. I'll see you tomarrow, I guess."

"Night Tenten. he said, slipping into the guest room and shuting the door before crawling into the bed and giving himself over to his dreams.


End file.
